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In Dutchess County, 32 — or about a third — of the 108 confirmed deaths from the coronavirus were among nursing home residents, the data shows. An additional nine deaths in Dutchess County nursing homes are “presumed” to have been coronavirus-related.

Ryan said Ulster County received the 3,000 COVID-19 tests it requested from the state specifically to test all residents and employees of the 11 remaining senior facilities in the county. He said those tests are expected to have been administered by the end of May.

Already, Ryan said, more than 400 residents and staff at the Golden Hill nursing home in Kingston were tested this week. Results of the testing at Golden Hill are not yet available.

Ryan said the process of testing nursing home residents is slower and more difficult than testing the general population because, unlike at the county’s drive-up sites, it requires a change of personal protective equipment after every test to avoid transmission.

The executive said his own grandmother, who lives at the Mountain Valley Manor nursing home in Kingston, has yet to be tested. He said he understands the concerns, fears and frustrations of family members who are anxious to know the status of residents at facilities that house their loved ones.

Ryan said Ulster County is also working with the operators of non-senior group home facilities on procedures “isolation, PPE [personal protective equipment] and testing.”

In a press release, Molinaro said the Dutchess County health department had “successfully procured 3,600 tests, enough to test every resident in the 13 nursing home facility in the county.”

Molinaro said the first round of testing began last week at Wingate at Beacon and the Pines at Poughkeepsie, with additional nursing homes beginning testing this week.

As a result of the testing, Molinaro said, 104 residents were tested at Wingate at Beacon, with 13 new cases of COVID-19 identified and 157 residents were tested at The Pines at Poughkeepsie with six new cases identified.

Under the guidelines established by Cuomo, regions must meet seven criteria in order to be allowed to start opening certain businesses. Currently, Ulster County meets all seven and the Mid-Hudson Region meets five of the seven, Ryan said.

Before a region can reopen, seven metrics must be met. Member counties must meet a specified decline in hospitalizations, deaths and new hospitalizations. Regions must have at least 30 percent of their hospital beds available along with 30 percent of their intensive care unit beds. They must have the capacity to conduct 30 tests per 1,000 residents per month and be able to meet state Department of Health thresholds for contact tracing.

“I am proud of the progress Ulster County has made toward meeting Governor Andrew Cuomo’s guidelines for Phase One opening, but the Mid-Hudson Region as a whole still has work to do before the state will permit anyone to reopen,” Ryan said in a prepared statement.

Ryan said he will convene a Small Business Virtual Town Hall Friday at 11 a.m. to further discuss the metrics, answer questions, and talk about how Ulster County plans to assist local businesses in safely reopening.

Asked about the county’s participation in another seven-county group, including representatives from Columbia, Greene, Orange, Sullivan and Putnam counties that is dubbed the Hudson Valley Reopening Workgroup, Ryan said he is supportive of the Governor’s regional approach but will continue to meet with leaders of other counties in the region as well.

“What happens in Greene and Columbia will matter to Ulster,” he said.

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On Wednesday, Ulster County reported 1533 confirmed cases and 62 deaths, as well as 657 recoveries; Dutchess County reported 3,399 confirmed cases and 108 deaths, as well as 1,101 recoveries.

Elsewhere in Mid-Hudson Valley, Greene County reported 229 confirmed cases (including 90 in adult care facilities), 14 deaths and 138 “resolved” cases (including 26 in adult care facilities); Columbia County reported 328 cases, 160 of which are active, and 24 deaths; Orange County, the region's most populous, reported 9,887 cases and 395 deaths; and Sullivan County reported 1,117 cases, though only 321 that were "active," and 28 deaths.

On Wednesday, the New York State Department of Health reported a total of 31,611 positive cases and 1,368 deaths in Westchester County and Putnam County reported 1,108 confirmed cases and 58 deaths.

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Diane Pineiro-Zucker has been a reporter at the Daily Freeman since April 2013. Pineiro-Zucker worked as a reporter in the Freeman’s Rhinebeck bureau in the early 1980s, left to become executive editor at Taconic Newspapers in Dutchess County.